Week 4 HS football game links

Drives aren’t finished, St. Joseph by-the-Sea coach Rich Clark believes, until the Vikings have completed the two-point conversion. So even though Sea scored five touchdowns Saturday afternoon in Huguenot it was four failed conversion attempts – four unfinished drives – that stung Clark after a 40-32 CHSFL loss to St. Francis Prep.

“We’ve got to finish drives,” said Clark. “We don’t consider the touchdown as the end of the drive.”

In a shootout like this, the one that always stands out is the last one. It came with 6:21 remaining after the Vikings had moved from 15 down to within 33-32 behind consecutive touchdown runs from quarterback Ryan Minlionica.

On his 14-yard score to close the third quarter, Minlionica converted the PAT run after Sea had failed on its first three tries. That cut the lead to 33-26. Two St. Francis Prep plays later, John Cipriani recovered a fumble on the Sea 26-yard line. The 74-yard drive that followed took 12 plays and nearly half the fourth quarter before Minlionia scored again – his third of the day – from two yards out to make it a 1-point game.

The Vikings had 439 yards rushing for the game, but those final three yards were a recurring problem. Minlionica was taken down at the 1-yard line. Instead of leading by a point – or 3, or 5, or 7 – the Vikings had left eight points on the field. And St. Francis had the ball and the lead with time running down.

“The two-point conversions definitely hurt us,” said Clark after the Vikings fell to 2-1 in the CHSFL and 2-2 overall.

That made all the difference on the ensuing St. Francis possession. After the Terriers drove to first-and-goal on the 9 with 2:46 remaining – and zero Sea timeouts remaining – the Vikings allowed Justin Guerre to walk in for his fourth score of the game in order to get the ball back.

It was the only play to make at that point. But without those timeouts the run-dominated Vikes turned to an unfamiliar passing game and didn’t get far before Prep’s Michael Hartgrove intercepted Minlionica on fourth-and-10 to seal the game.

While the Vikings ground out yardage in familiar fashion – Minlionica ran 38 times for 227 yards, Joseph Barretta had seven carries for 132 yards and Frank Calcutta had 80 yards and the other two Sea touchdowns – St. Francis Prep struck over and over again with big plays from Guerre and Hartgrove.

On St. Francis’ second play from scrimmage, Guerre took a swing pass 58 yards for a score, and that was just the start of the show. The Terrier senior ran 10 times for 172 yards and three touchdowns. Hartgrove had three catches for 68 yards and a score, plus a 77-yard kick return touchdown. The shortest of Prep’s first five touchdowns was a 30-yard play.

“They’re two of the most talented players in our league,” said Clark. “We knew that going in.”

The Vikings matched that firepower in their own way, and a quick exchange of scores closed the first half. Calcutta’s 3-yard touchdown run brought Sea within 13-12 with 2:58 to go in the half, but the Terriers answered promptly. Guerre took another short pass for a 27-yard ride and Hartgrove’s 30-yard catch had St. Francis up 20-12 with 58 seconds to go.

The Vikings would fail with a short clock at the end, but here Barretta took a reverse 67 yards down the left side to the St. Francis 4. Minlionica quickly scored from there to make it a 20-18 game at halftime.

On the opening kick of the second half, though, Hartgrove gashed the Vikings for a 77-yard score. A 13-play Sea drive stalled at Prep’s 24 and Guerre followed with a 60-yard touchdown run that put St. Francis up 33-18.

The teams had spent the first half exchanging scores, but now the Terriers had a cushion.

“That was huge,” said Clark of Hartgrove’s return. “We can’t let those plays happen, but we can’t let our reaction to the play affect us going forward and we did.”

NOTES: Sea’s Christopher Bertosen blocked two St. Francis PAT kicks … The Terriers were never forced to punt … Sea’s Michael Weintraub had a sank and forced fumble and batted down a pass … Sea’s Pete Mokwuah had a sack in the third quarter but drew a personal foul on the play, giving St. Francis first-and-10 instead of fourth-and-14. Two plays later Guerre scored on his 60-yard run for a 33-18 lead.